Welcome to Area 2-West of England
Area 2 of LTLRE stretches from Taunton to Swindon and covers the areas served by the Diocese of Bath and Wells and Bristol. It includes the Local Authority areas of Somerset, North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, parts of Wiltshire and Swindon.
I’m delighted to be able to contribute to, and build on, the many good things happening in RE in this area. Learn, Teach, Lead RE was established to find solutions to unmet needs in RE, so please get in touch to let me know what you think these are. If you already run a local network group, are a Specialist Leader in Education (SLE) for RE, are involved in research or Initial Teacher Education (ITE) – please do get in touch.
If you are in a Teaching School, a Multi-academy Trust (MAT) or a school interested in improving the quality of RE in your area we may be able to help.
If you are a teacher of RE with a passion for the subject and would like an opportunity to further develop your leadership, please contact me.
Ed Pawson 07712321955
Brooke J (2014) The RE Teacher’s Survival Guide: A practical guide to teaching RE in primary schools Abingdon: Bible Reading Fellowship
ISBN 978 0 85746 220 6 £6.99
(Covers the basics although the section on Assessment is already dated)
David Hampshire has drafted two documents to illustrate how Christmas and Easter might be taught in a way that supports progression
Christmas Y1 – Y6 Objectives
Easter Y1-9 Objectives
Teaching Judaism: Some Common Misconceptions by David Hampshire
Judaism: the Essentials by David Hampshire
Gill Tewkesbury won the Hockerill / NATRE prize for innovate teaching in RE for 2014 for her work in primary school. She has kindly shared her Scheme of Work, the details of which are from the Hockerill website
This SOW follows the life of Jim, an 18 year old student who has just finished his A-levels and is planning to work as a Gap year student for a charity in Africa. Each week Jim sends a letter, e-mail or text to the class telling the children what he is doing as well as asking for help and advice. The children follow Jim on his journey as he learns more about the Christian faith. The materials have also been developed to work alongside a geography topic, namely Africa. The materials draw together the Key Stage 2 “Beliefs in Action in the World”, “Sacred Writings” and the “Inspirational People”, parts of the previous curriculum supported by Devon and Exeter Diocese and is easily transferrable to the new scheme looking at “How do we make moral choices?” (Beliefs in Action) and “How should we live?”. It is currently being used for Year 4 children but can be adapted easily for other year groups
The judges commented that this is a creative, innovative way of opening up and applying Christian belief and teaching. The entry makes excellent use of following fictional 18 year old Jim on his Gap year journey and showed very deep learning from religion. Uganda is chosen because there is an excellent link with a local Barnstaple charity working there. In short this entry ticked all the boxes for the judges including transferability to other schools and adaptability to other religions.
ICT in the RE Classroom: An Introduction by Ian Hartley
Making RE Memorable, Meaningful and Motivating:
This year Gill Tewkesbury undertook some funded research as a Farmington Fellow exploring how RE can be memorable, meaningful and motivating.
She concluded that the using the following approaches can help:
RE: Memorable, Meaningful, Motivating… a methodology! her Farmington Fellowship Report 2014-2015 can be read here